Chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Karim Khan, accuses both Israeli and Hamas leaders of ‘extermination’ and requested arrest warrants against them from the court’s judges.
On Monday, May 21, in an unprecedented and hugely controversial development, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Karim Khan, requested arrest warrants from the court’s judges for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, along with three top Hamas leaders, reports The Times of Israel.
Khan claimed that the charges against Israel’s prime minister and defence chief are for the crimes of „causing extermination, causing starvation as a method of war including the denial of humanitarian relief supplies, deliberately targeting civilians in conflict.”
„We submit that the crimes against humanity charged were committed as part of a widespread and systematic attack against the Palestinian civilian population pursuant to State policy. These crimes, in our assessment, continue to this day,” said Khan about Netanyahu and Gallant.
Khan also applied for arrest warrants against Yahya Sinwar, Hamas’s ruler in Gaza; the terror group’s military chief, Mohammed Deif; and the leader of the organisation, Ismail Haniyeh. He said they would be charged with extermination, murder, hostage-taking, rape, and sexual assault.
„We submit that the crimes against humanity charged were part of a widespread and systematic attack against the civilian population of Israel by Hamas and other armed groups pursuant to organisational policies,” said the statement.
The issuance of warrants depends on the decision of the court’s pre-trial judges.
War cabinet minister Benny Gantz slammed the decision, saying that Israel’s military is complying with international law in its fighting in Gaza and terming the decision „a crime of historic proportions.”
Opposition leader Yair Lapid blasted the move. „It is not possible to issue arrest warrants against Netanyahu, Sinwar, and Deif. There is no such comparison. We cannot accept it, and it is unforgivable,” he said, calling the decision „a terrible political failure.”
Israel’s Minister of Diaspora Affairs Amichai Chikli wrote on Instagram:
„The World Court at The Hague is driven by pure antisemitism, which, infiltrating the functioning mechanisms of international institutions, is once again leading to record-breaking absurdity shows. No decision by the antisemitic body will stop Israel from fulfilling its legitimate mission and will lead to the collapse of the institution’s global legitimacy”.
Chikli says the ICC draws a parallel between terrorists who slaughter innocent babies, children, women and men and take hostages and the leader of a life-loving democratic country who fights for the peace of its people.
Israel is not a member of the court, and even if the arrest warrants are issued, Netanyahu and Gallant do not face any immediate risk of prosecution. Nevertheless, Khan’s announcement deepens Israel’s isolation as it presses ahead with its war, which it claims is aimed at eliminating Hamas.
US President Joe Biden called the decision of Chief Prosecutor Khan „outrageous.”
„Let me be clear: whatever this prosecutor might imply, there is no equivalence — none — between Israel and Hamas,” Biden said in a statement. „We will always stand with Israel against threats to its security.”
Israel’s closest allies on Monday criticised the decision of International Criminal Court prosecutor Karim Khan to seek arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant alongside three leaders of the Hamas terrorist organisation.
US President Joe Biden called the decision „outrageous.”
„Let me be clear: whatever this prosecutor might imply, there is no equivalence — none — between Israel and Hamas,” Biden said in a statement. „We will always stand with Israel against threats to its security.”
In his own statement, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the Biden administration „fundamentally rejects” Khan’s decision and questioned the legitimacy and credibility of his investigation.
„We reject the prosecutor’s equivalence of Israel with Hamas. It is shameful. Hamas is a brutal terrorist organisation that carried out the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust and is still holding dozens of innocent people hostage, including Americans,” Blinken said.
The parallel Khan drew between the Hamas terrorist organisation and Israel provoked outrage among many European leaders.
„The simultaneous application for arrest warrants against the Hamas leaders on the one hand and the two Israeli officials on the other has given the false impression of equivalence,” a spokesman for the German foreign ministry said in a statement.
Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said that it seemed „truly singular, I would say unacceptable, to equate a government legitimately elected by the people in a democracy with a terrorist organisation that is the cause of everything that is happening in the Middle East.”
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said in an X post that the ICC initiative is „absurd and shameful. Such initiatives will not bring the Middle East closer to peace, but will only further inflame tensions.”
Photo credit: Piroschka Van De Wouw/REUTERS
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